A SENIOR Government scientist threatened to quit yesterday if ministers failed to back experiments on animals.

A SENIOR Government scientist threatened to quit yesterday if ministers failed to back experiments on animals.

Colin Blakemore, head of the Medical Research Council, spoke out after reports that he was not put forward for an honour because of his support for the work.

Prof Blakemore's public defence of animal experimentation made him too controversial to be included, according to leaked papers.

The scientist said the leak threatened to make his position at the MRC untenable.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, "The mission statement of the medical research organisation which I now run includes a specific commitment to engaging with the public on issues in medical research.

"How can I now go to MRC scientists and ask them to take the risk of being willing to talk about animal experimentation with this indication that doing so will reduce their standing and their reputation in the eyes of the Government?"

Prof Blakemore called on the Government to "reaffirm its commitment to the essential use of animals in research and also to the importance of scientists being willing to speak out and engage with the public on controversial issues".

"What this leak, this unfortunate leak, has revealed is that this honours system is not the rigorous system of assessment of merit that we thought it was," he said. "There should be mechanisms for recognising contribution to society that should be unbiased. But what we see is that this seems to be subject to personal whim, to political expediency, perhaps to blackballing by individuals."

Prof Blakemore said his exclusion showed officials just did not want to become embroiled in such controversy.

"Apparently I was marked down as too controversial because of my, as it said, work on vivisection, which I take to be not my actual experimental work," he said. "Other scientists who work on animals but don't speak about their work have been given honours recently."

Science Minister Lord Sainsbury said the leak sent out the "wrong message".

"This does not in any way represent government policy," he told Today.